Activists laud N.S. protection efforts

Grits designate 100 sites as wilderness, bringing total to 12.3% of province’s land

Rogues Roost Wilderness Area. (Communications Nova Scotia)

Environmentalists and naturalists are hailing the provincial government for achieving protection for 12.3 per cent of the land in Nova Scotia.

The government announced Tuesday the designation of more than 100 properties as wilderness areas, nature reserves and parks. The move meets the call of the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act to protect at least 12 per cent by 2015.

Among the new areas covered are the Rogues Roost Wilderness Area in Halifax County, the Medway Lakes Wilderness Area in Annapolis County, the Kluscap Wilderness Area in Victoria County (also known as Kelly’s Mountain), Harrison Woods Nature Reserve in Cumberland County and the Dunraven Bog Nature Reserve in Queens County.

Raymond Plourde, the Ecology Action Centre’s wilderness co-ordinator, called it a significant achievement.

“They are all very important eco-sites across the province, from one end to the other, that will help us as a province, as a land mass, to preserve biological diversity in this province,” Plourde said.

Biological diversity and species across the world are in dramatic decline, and a lot of that has to do with man-made changes to habitat, he said.

“We’ve essentially commandeered most of the productive regions of the planet, and Nova Scotia is no different.”

Environment Minister Randy Delorey said the Liberals have been working toward the goal since coming to office, but the process takes time.

“It’s like buying a piece of land because its actual ownership transfers from (the Natural Resources Department) to Environment,” Delorey said.

“There’s a lot of ground field work that was done with staff from DNR and Environment to move this stuff forward.”

While the province’s parks and protected areas plan talks about hitting a potential total protected area of 13.9 per cent, Delorey said he isn’t concerned about the ability to get there.

Already for the coming year, he’s been directed to find an additional one per cent of land, according to a mandate letter from the premier, released last week.

“The lands that we’ve protected are consistent with what’s in the plan thus far,” said Delorey.

“We’re over the 12 per cent mandate, and we’re working through the rest.”

Getting the rest of the way shouldn’t be difficult, said Plourde, because the areas in question have already been identified and are laid out in the plan; it’s now a matter of doing the required legwork to complete the effort, he said, praising Delorey and Premier Stephen McNeil for surpassing the 12 per cent mark.

Chris Miller, a national conservation biologist with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, said Tuesday’s announcement moves Nova Scotia from seventh to third in the country for total percentage of land protected.

He noted that among the sites announced Tuesday are habitats for species at risk and some of the last old-growth Acadian forests in the province.

‘This is a really good step for conservation,” Miller said.

“These aren’t the easy sites; these are really good sites.”

But not everyone had praise for the government’s announcement; acting NDP leader Maureen MacDonald said she was disappointed, and that the Liberals are taking too long to make good on a plan that was waiting for them upon taking office.

“We had already identified a bit more than 13 per cent (while the NDP was in power),” MacDonald said.

Delorey’s mandate letter appears to be asking him to do something that should have already happened by now, she said.